CHAPTER 4
Jessica, Sam, Martin, and Emerald quickly swam to the other side of the lake where there wasn't a horde of house elves and the two girls quickly climbed out and reverted to their human forms.
"Hurry back," Martin called after their retreating forms.
Sam watched Jessica run, her long violet hair whipping behind her as she ran. Martin looked over at his friend, amused.
"You really found someone special, Samanualelcitve, didn't you?" Martin asked his best friend, smirking.
Sam's response was to playfully punch Martin's arm.
The two mermen started wrestling playfully, which could never have been at a worse time for them…
The creature watched the blue bubble burst in horror. Who could have cast the spell? Her charm was to make the students house elves….without knowledge of their true selves….
But, she let it go…there was no changing what was done. She quickly came up with a handful of new ideas as she saw Hermione and Aimee came running towards her, with looks of disgust on their faces.
"Well, my pretties," she said to them, "you must have discovered what you have done. Now your dear headmaster will have to punish you, now won't he?"
The two girls feigned horror.
"Well, then, I can help you…but only if you finish your part of our bargain."
She watched them, as the looked at each other with calculating looks. Finally, Aimee turned to her and asked, "What if we refuse?"
Emerald rushed to keep up with the Gryffindor girl, as Jessica led the way to her common room.
"C'mon, Emerald! Dumbledore won't care if you enter our common room, if its for a good reason, and this defiantly constitutes as a god reason!"
The two girls quickly got to the Portrait hole and Jessica gasped out the password.
"Be careful, dear," the Lady in the painting called after them.
Jessica grabbed Emerald's hand and pulled her into the room. "Find a bag of candy, but DON'T eat ANY of it!"
Emerald started looking while Jessica charged to her dorm room.
Draco had come out of his daze the second the bubble had popped, and quickly, he galloped out of there, amazingly unnoticed. However, he galloped by the lake and came up to the two mermen, and almost ran right over them!
The two mermen looked up in horror as Draco reared and neighed quite loudly, startling even himself. They dived into deeper water and swam back to the surface to figure out what was going on.
Draco, for once in his life, came back to them, "I'm sorry. I didn't see you two."
Sam sat there shocked. He'd slowly been learning about the magical world, but this…creature…was too much for him.
Martin, however, asked Sam's silent question, "Who…What…are you?!"
At this comment, however, Draco bristled. His temporary kindness evaporated.
"I am Draco Malfoy, of one of the most notable Wizarding families." He said in a rather superior tone.
"If you are Draco," Jessica commented, coming up behind him, "then one, you have a lot to learn and two; you are no longer a wizard. Centaurs cannot be wizards. Sorry."
Sam looked up and instantly popped out of his surprised daze. "Jessica! Did you guys get the stuff?"
"What stuff?" Draco sneered.
"The stuff to kill that horrendous creature's House elf spells," Emerald told him coolly, "Either help us out by being quiet so as not to draw attention to us, or go away."
He huffed at her, but didn't leave.
"Yes, Sam, I have the things we need. Let's go!"
The two girls became scared for real when the old hag smirked at them and told them, "then you'll be pretty house elves permanently."
Aimee gulped and stopped Hermione from turning and running. "What do you want us to do?"
"Ah. Now that's more like it! Deep in the bottom of that lake is something that those terrible mer-folk stole from me. I want it back."
"What is this thing?" Aimee asked?
"It is a precious jewel like none other you will ever see. It glows like the sun in the deepest darkness and shines like rainbows. I will personally assist you in going under the water to retrieve it."
"And why don't you go get it?"
The creature looked at her, and then chuckled. "My dear, can you see an old thing like me swimming?"
Neither responded, so the hag led them to waters edge, never suspecting what was next to happen.
Martin and Sam swam below the lake, knowing that the hag would once again attempt to send someone down to steal the crystal. Sam went down to guard the gem while Martin went to patrol the waters.
Meanwhile, Jessica and Emerald went to find the hag and Keilley and Hermy; knowing they would probably find all three together, since Draco informed them that the two house elves had been turning the school into house elves.
Harry was getting worried…he didn't know why Hermione…No, Aimee…would try to turn him into a house elf…she had looked so mad at him…until then he hadn't realized how much her friendship meant to him. Harry suddenly decided he was going to go find her and make sure she was ok.
He slithered out into the throng of house elves, not caring who saw him. He only cared that he find her.
Aimee was quietly following the crone towards the edge of the lake, with a whimpering house elf trailing behind her.
Finally, she could take it no more and she stopped. "HERMIONE! Stop whimpering. It'll be ok. What's wrong?"
But Hermione didn't get a chance to answer because the hag grabbed their arms and dragged them to the edge of the lake.
Yet, before the evil creature got even the slightest chance to send the two into the lake to find the treasure she coveted, four things happened at once.
One was Martin and Sam jumped up into the air from the water and grabbed the two elves and swam away from the monster, holding the girls just high enough above the water that they wouldn't get wet. The next was Harry colliding into the creature because he was trying to get to Aimee who suddenly wasn't there. The third was the hag falling into Emerald and Jessica, and their candies spilling all over the place.
And finally, the fourth thing stunned everyone there.
As the first three things occurred, one of the many house elves walked up to the scene very quietly. But this elf was different from the others. He was more serious. And it didn't take long to figure out why…..
Suddenly, the elf began to grow very rapidly, and change into a human. He was quickly revealed as Dumbledore; and even before he had finished transforming back into himself, the students around him saw a side of him they would have much preferred never witnessing.
His face turned nearly purple with rage as he grasped the quivering creature's arm and yanked her up.
"You have disrupted this school for the last time, wench!" Too all the witnesses surprise, his voice remained calm and quiet the entire time, unlike his expression, which scared everyone present.
Hermione sat whimpering on Martin's shoulders, so Aimee reached over to comfort her.
"It'll be ok, Hermy, don't you worry."
Everyone watched as Dumbledore pointed his wand at the hag and demanded that she undo ALL her wicked spells.
She looked at him mischievously and murmured slyly, "ALL of them?"
"Every last one that affect us here at the school. NOW!"
"OK, you asked for it!"
She gave him an evil grin and suddenly all the house elves, except for Hermione and Aimee were themselves again. But that wasn't all…
"HELP!" Aimee cried, "House elves can't swim!!!!" but she was suddenly grabbed from behind.
"Hold on to me," gasped Sam, "I've got to get us to the shore."
Martin quickly came to his friend's aide and helped Aimee grab hold. Then he swam with Sam, helping him stay afloat with the added weight.
Harry quickly swam out, very glad now, that he had discovered that he could swim as a Naga. "Get on my back," He hissed at Sam and Aimee, "You, too, Hermy."
With that, he swam the three of them to shore, while Martin swam behind, making sure none of them fell off.
"What happened to Sam, Mummy?" Beryl asked Hermione.
"Well, the creature removed the spell she had placed on him, as well, because he was there, and affecting someone in the school. She was very disgusted when Harry saved the two of them because she had hoped that with them drowning there would be enough havoc that she could get away. However, that ploy failed and she had to reckon with Dumbledore."
"But what happened to him?"
"He became human again, like he was born."
"Oh. But I thought he couldn't be changed back."
"He can't."
"But then how cou-"
"Shush…don't interrupt, you're question will be answered in good time."
Groan….
Dumbledore watched the group coming from the middle of the lake and abruptly faced the creature, with a look on his face that would scare the scariest giant. "You have caused enough trouble for this school!" with that, he pointed his wand at her, muttered some sort of incantation, and suddenly a cage appeared around her. When she grabbed at the bars of the cage, she jumped back, in pain.
"That isn't a good idea; neither is magic," Dumbledore told her, "that cage will shock you when you do either."
The students watched these strange occurrences in awe of the headmaster, and finally, Draco, of all people...or centaurs, for that matter, came up to him. "What are you going to do with that...that hag, Sir?"
"What do YOU think we should do to punish her, Draco?"
The young centaur looked at Dumbledore, surprised. "You want my opinion?"
"Yes, Mr. Malfoy, I do."
"Well…."
Dumbledore smiled at him, watching the young man ponder what he thought was suitable punishment.
"I'd say she ought to be sent to wherever Aimee's father sends people who disobey his laws because her attack was directed through Aimee."
"Wise idea, centaur," a booming voice said behind Draco, making him jump.
"Ahh, Duke Poruddine. I knew we'd be hearing from you soon." Dumbledore greeted the man behind Draco and offered his hand. As the two men shook hands, Draco looked at the newcomer, who was rather short and stocky, but was a rather kindly looking fellow.
"Your Aimee's Father?" Draco asked in surprise.
"Yes; and speaking of my daughter, where is she?"
Aimee and Hermione looked at each other in fear, and ran towards the school. But even then, they didn't escape Dumbledore's notice.
"I believe, sir that she is inside the school presently. Why don't you join us all for dinner? Come, you can join me and I'll show you around the school. You can see her then."
Mr. Legalador nodded and followed the Headmaster towards the school. Dumbledore stopped by the rest of the group of misfits. "Tell Aimee and Hermione that Mr. Legalador is here and would like to see his daughter at dinner. And don't you lot worry, everything will be sorted out soon enough."
Harry nodded, instantly glad he had reverted himself to human form before the headmaster had passed their little group.
"What are we going to do?" Jennifer said. "They haven't figured out how to revert to normal yet!"
Harry looked at them thoughtfully. "I think I may have an idea…Where's Ginny?"
"I don't know," Jennifer said.
"I'll go find her," replied Emerald.
"Good. Go find her and everyone meet me in the Gryffindor common room as soon as you can. Martin, can you revert to human like Emerald?"
"No," Martin shook his head.
"Alrighty then; Accio tub!" Harry said, waving his wand. Suddenly a large tub, filled with water, that looked as though it might have come from the prefects bathroom appeared in front of the two of them. "Get in."
After Martin climbed in, with Harry's and Draco's help, Harry said the levitation charm and towed the tub to the common room.
Someone got Ron, along the way, as well as Kadry and Gabriel and soon, everyone involved, including Draco, was in the Gryffindor Common room, shooing other Gryffindors out of the room.
"What's Draco doing in the Gryffindor common room?"
"Now shush. Just because he was in there doesn't mean he learned the password; Harry had the door open so he could enter…along with the other non-gryffindors."